Man and pets escape from devastating house fire

Tara Miko
Reporter
Tara started with APN in 2010 after graduating with a journalism and politics degree from Griffith University in Brisbane. After two-and-a-half years working on APN papers in the Bowen Basin in Central Queensland, she joined the team at The Chronicle in February 2013. In September that year she took over the reins of the Rural Weekly.

UPDATE: A man and his pets have made a lucky escape after a house caught fire in the Lockyer Valley.

The 73-year-old man was asleep in the home at Wesslings Rd, Ropeley when a noise awoke him to the blaze about 10.10pm.

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services arrived on scene within minutes to find the house already fully engulfed in flames.

Gatton fire station officer lieutenant Mark Luther said the owner of the house was outside by the time they arrived.

"He was in his bedroom at the time with the door shut when he heard a noise and found the house full of smoke," he said.

"He went back in the room, put his shoes on and a towel over his face and walked out."

Firefighters also managed to save a dog and her five puppies who were in a kennel at the back of the house, near where the fire started.

QFES and rural brigades from Gatton, Laidley, Forest Hill, Toowoomba, Withcott and Woodlea attended the blaze which took about an hour to get under control. Crews were onsite until about 3am on Thursday morning.

A man and his pets were lucky to escape this house fire.

Acting officer-in-charge of Gatton police Rowland Browne said initial enquiries showed the man had been cooking on a wooden stove and left it unattended which caused the fire to start.

"It would appear the wood burner somehow started the fire which has spread to the rest of the dwelling," he said.

"It has been extensively damaged and destroyed."

He said they were not treating the fire as suspicious.

EARLIER: A Lockyer Valley house has been partially destroyed by fire overnight.

The fire, reported to emergency services about 10.10pm, had destroyed about 50 per cent of the Wesslings Rd, Ropeley, home by the time Queensland Fire and Emergency Services arrived on scene within minutes.

Five QFES crews and two rural brigades responded and had the blaze under control by 10.50pm.

Crews remained on scene to dampen down hot spots and completely extinguish the blaze which they managed by about 11.45pm.

Fire investigators have returned to the house this morning to determine the cause of the fire.

It is understood authorities are not treating it as suspicious at this stage.